Our present invention relates to a brassiere with a front closure which is invisible from the front and, more particularly, to a front closure for a brassiere which can be mounted in such manner that it is not visible from the front of the brassiere.
Front-closing brassieres are particularly convenient since complications involved in reaching behind the wearer can be eliminated. The most common front closure for a brassiere utilizes a hook structure in which a hook provided with a loop through which fabric on one side of the brassiere is secured to the hook. The hook engages in loops on the other edge of the brassiere to close the latter. While such a fastener is convenient to use, it is not always sufficiently secure and invariably is visible, thereby interfering with the appearance of the garment.
Other front closures are relatively large, complex and difficult to manipulate and in order to present them from being unsightly, may be decorative features. The clean lines of a brassiere may thus be lost. It is, therefore, desirable to provide an easily mounted, convenient and substantially invisible closure for the front of a brassiere.
It is, therefore, the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved brassiere front closure which can be readily attached to the two edges of the front of a brassiere to be joined such that, when the closure halves are engaged, they are practically invisible from the front of the brassiere. It is also an object of the invention to provide a front closure for the purposes described which is convenient to use, of light weight and free from the bulkiness associated with some earlier brassiere front closures.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an improved brassiere of the front-closure type in which the front closure itself does not interfere with the aesthetics of the brassiere from the point of view of the lines of the brassiere for the fabric from which it is made.
These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the invention in a front closure for a brassiere comprising:
a female closure half having a first semielliptical plate with a planar obverse surface delimited by a straight edge and a curved edge, an annular formation on a reverse side of the semielliptical plate overhanging the straight edge, and an elongated opening formed in the annular formation along the straight edge whereby a ledge is formed by the plate in the annular formation; and
a male closure half having a second semielliptical plate with a planar obverse surface delimited by a straight edge and a curved edge, and a lug on a reverse side of the second semielliptical plate projecting over the edge engageable in the opening with the closure halves positioned transverse to one another, and engaging with a snap fit in the annular formation while underlying the ledge upon rotation of the closure halves into a planar position in which the planar surfaces are coplanar, the straight edges lying in contact with one another in the planar position, the semielliptical plates being attachable to juxtaposed edges of a brassiere.
According to the invention the first plate outwardly of the annular formation and the second plate outwardly of the lug are thin sewing flanges pierceable by a sewing needle stitching the closure halves to the respective edges of the brassiere.
The annular formation is generally elliptical and surrounds a generally rectangular recess with rounded corners.
The two semielliptical plates are preferably formed in one piece with the lug and the annular formation, e.g. by injection molding, for example, from nylon 6. The two closure halves are stitched on the back of the two front fabric flaps which are to adjoin at the juxtaposed edges by stitching through those flaps and the two plates along the curved edges of the latter. Since the closure halves can bring the edges of these flaps into abutment at the front of the brassiere, the closure is invisible from the front when the two parts are attached together.
The stitching can be zigzag stitching or a step stitch and, if desired, a tape can be stitched over the sewing flanges.
The invention, therefore, also is a brassiere which has, at the front thereof, a pair of fabric flaps adapted to adjoin at respective edges and secured to the male and female closure halves previously described along the backs of those flaps. When the two closure halves are brought together so that the straight edges of the respective plates lie in contact with one another in the planar position, the juxtaposed edges of the brassiere flaps are likewise brought together so as to prevent the closure from being visible from the front.